What is there astonishing in the death of a mortal? But we are grieved at his dying before his time. Are we sure that this was not his time? We do not know how to pick and choose what is good for our souls, or how to fix the limits of the life of man.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the nature of death and our perception of time regarding life.
Saint Basil prompts us to consider the inevitability of death and questions the human tendency to mourn lives lost too soon. He suggests that our grief may stem from a misguided belief that we can determine what is best for our souls and the timing of life's events, indicating that the boundaries of life and death are beyond our understanding.
In practice
In a memorial service, this quote can remind attendees of the natural course of life.
Now, if you notice how the swan, putting its neck down into the deep water, brings up food for itself from below, then you will discover the wisdom of the Creator, in that He gave it a neck longer than its feet for this reason, that it might, as if lowering a sort of fishing line, procure the food hidden in the deep water.
When you have become God's in the measure he desires, then he himself will bestow you upon others; unless, to your greater glory, he chooses to keep you all to himself.
I heard many discourses which were good for the soul, but I could not discover in the case of any one of the teachers that his life was worthy of his words.
To lovers of the truth, nothing can be put before God and hope in Him.
If every man took only what was sufficient for his needs, leaving the rest to those in want, there would be no rich and no poor.
When someone steals another's clothes, we call them a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.
To be conscious of Being, you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind. This is one of the most essential tasks on your spiritual journey.
The young are heated by Nature as drunken men by wine.
A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred groups start down the path either to dictatorship of the right or the left.
Not to discontinue our allegiance, in this case, would be to join with the sovereign in promoting the slavery and misery of that society, the welfare of which, we ourselves, as well as our sovereign, are indispensably obliged to secure and promote, as far as in us lies.
Tonight, the moon came out, it was nearly full._x000D_ _x000D_ Way down here on earth, I could feel it's pull._x000D_ _x000D_ The weight of gravity or just the lure of life,_x000D_ _x000D_ Made me want to leave my only home tonight._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ I'm just wondering how we know where we belong_x000D_ _x000D_ Is it in the arc of the moon, leaving shadows on the lawn_x000D_ _x000D_ In the path of fireflies and a single bird at dawn_x000D_ _x000D_ Singing in between here and gone
Life, and you, and I, and all of us together became for a while interesing to ourselves once more.
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